Author
Topic: Between two Disciples (Read 1326 times)

After escorting Belwar and Himo to the Keep's chapel Valen and Zurn stepped through the door into the night spring air. It was still early in the season and only a few days ago there was a dusting of snow on the ground. The breeze coming off of the hips of the mountains still had winters chill and one could still see his breath flowing forth in a dissipating fog.

The warmth that the chapel offered could not only be felt on the skin but in one's spirit as it was comforting to be in a place that was finally familiar. Zurn felt as he was starting to come into his own taking an active roll in something larger in himself. He wondered if Valen, a devotee to Ehlonna, also felt the same way. Although the two were learned in differing doctrines they were still bound by the the same divine grace. Zurn felt as if he was becoming more familiar with Valen because of that or because of the recent trials of the wild. Maybe it was both.

As the two walk into the courtyard Zurn says, "Aye, Valen it'n be a good thing dat Belwar and Himo be findin' peace in th' arms of Ehlonna and be right in the head. I hafta admit, afta being da wild like we were those cots that those two be sleepin' on look fit for a king in me eyes!" Zurn laughed.

"Anyway, do y'thinkin' we should be findin' Arlen and the kitty cat or head back to the capn's to be completin' the report? I get the sense dat Arlen is a touch scatty but not much dangerous and dat the cap'n is twitchin' to be hearin' news from our travels. Waddya think?"

Lady Corryn looked up at Valen and smiled. "It should be all right, brother." She answered him. "I have Ehlonna's shield to protect me, and this book, while clearly evil, is not an active evil, but is passive. I would have to read it carefully to unlock its powers, and I am not so much the fool as to do that." She smiled fondly at Valen, the way an older sister would to a beloved little brother. Somewhere deep inside of him, Valen had the conviction that he had known this lithe woman for most of his life.

Coris, from his seat on the far side of the desk, chuckled slightly. "No." He said. "We do not have a way to suss out shapechangers, but I will meet in the morning with my lieutenants and we will begin this address. In the meantime, should you wish, I'm sure that Lady Corryn can arrange for you to sleep guard over Belwar and Himo."

"Of course." Lady Corryn agreed smoothly.

"But we are far off course now." Coris continued. "You have half asked many questions this night, but answered none, truly." He didn't seem angry as he spoke, but merely trying to steer the discussion in the direction that he wanted it to go. "There are naturally many questions that you might have, but you've mentioned a...what...winnergo? You have flashed a symbol that I barely saw, and you say that you let a criminal go? Please, gentlemen, start from the start, and move slowly. What has happened?"

Zurn blinks once, twice, thrice and says robustly, "Well alright then! You're not a shifter. Now, my guess is that someone here very well could be. That be a danger that's too close to home wouldn't you agree? As a matter of fact...are there guards in the chapel? Belwar and Himo are there as vulnerable as an open sore! Excuse my frustation sir but we gotta find that shapeshifter! No one is safe while it's here!"

Zurn's eyes squint a bit more and says, "Well that's where I'm confused 'bout this situation. I don't know what them shapers can do and what they can't aside from shapechange. I realize that ye jus' healed me friends but now how do I know that the real Coris didn't step out only to have the faker step in? Hmm...now what would I know as the truth to a question that only Coris would know but a stinkin' shaper wouldn't? Aha! Do I come from Derkenwold, Gorna, Greyhawk, or Veluna?"

"I was a shapechanger?" Coris asked with some incredulity. "Zurn, I've only just before your own eyes cured our friends of a foul disease. Surely you're not saying that I'm the enemy?"

"What are you thinking?" Lady Corryn softly asked Zurn, the book that Valen had produced lay open in her lap. "Do you believe that Coris and I are spies in our own camp?" She smiled kindly at the dwarven priest. "You've the mind of a survivor." She said amicably. "How shall we assuage your concerns?"

Zurn comes to a realization and squints his eyes. He tightens his hand around his flail and says, "Y'know, now that I be thinkin' harder on the past events I seem to remember coming across you and Brescht in the forest...and you attacked us...at night. Brescht dinna survive but you did...he turned out to be a shapchanger. Now, either your the same changer or it's among us in this keep methinks...as a spy...either way this Keep isn't as safe as I thought. Valen, something is terribly amiss right now...somewhere."

Zurn says, "Lady Corryn, Ye might be knowing such things...the Wendergoes that attacked us Valen says come aboot when tha forest is angry and hassled. Could it'n be that tha stinkoes in the mountain stronghold be doin' tha? Also," Zurn takes out the Circle of Squares medallion, "Does this mean anything to ye?" Zurn hands it to the Captain.

Coris looked briefly at the book that Valen dropped upon the desk as he answered, saying "Well, I did once upon a time know a young scoundrel gnome that went by that name, but that was a long time ago, and a long way from here. That Melzak was a priest to a self-styled demi-god named Vorntoque the vulture king. Vorntoque was destroyed by...well, he was destroyed and Melzak was killed." His eyebrows raised and his eyes rolled, as though he was looking off to the left. "That was well over a decade ago."

Coris fixed the book with his piercing stare for a moment, then his brow furrowed and his face frowned. He slid the book towards Lady Corryn. "This is more along your expertise, sister." He said.

Lady Corryn turned the heavy tome about and began leafing through it's pages, studying them closely.

"What else happened?" Coris pressed as Corryn studied the book, her mouth pursed and working from one side to the other.